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Is 'World of Warcraft' Exploring A Free To Play Future?

“First, we’ll be testing the (World of Warcraft) in-game store with some new kinds of items we’re looking into introducing (in Asian regions, at the outset) based on player feedback: specifically, an experience buff to assist with the leveling process, as well as an alternate way to acquire Lesser Charms of Good Fortune,” said Blizzard community manager Bashiok in a recent forum post.

Experience buffs and other convenience items are typical fare in many free-to-play MMORPG models, could this recent experimentation mean that the subscription-based giant is exploring free-to-play possibilities? The concept of a World of Warcraft “cash shop” isn’t exactly new, as the game has been exploring sales of cosmetic options for some time now, including in-game mounts and pets, some of which have been tied to various charity causes.

The items currently in discussion may seem low impact to the current World of Warcraft playerbase, as leveling is not a particularly difficult process in the title and Lesser Charms are relatively painless to acquire, but it’s a definite shift in philosophy and certainly not common for a subscription-based title. While experience boosts and “bonus loot rolls” in some form are standard fare for free-to-play models, this may be the first time such goods enter a major offering that comes with a subscription fee.

“We’re still pretty early in the exploration process, but we did want to go into more detail about our rationale for introducing an in-game store, as well as provide some insight into what you might ultimately see available there,” said Bashiok.

“For players who are already interested in the in-game items we offer, such as Pet Store pets and mounts, the benefits of an in-game store are pretty clear. We think everyone would appreciate the convenience of being able to make such purchases without having to leave the game, and ultimately that’s our long-term goal for the system, though there’s quite a bit of work involved in retrofitting those existing items into the new system.”

The presence of an item store within the game itself will provide Blizzard and World of Warcraft with opportunities to pitch players microtransactions with far less friction than the current design, which requires players to head to the website to make special purchases.

The language implies that the in-game cash shop will absolutely be making an appearance on North American soil, but it’s not clear where offerings go from there. The current options may seem innocent enough, but will World of Warcraft offer a complete range of standard free-to-play options within subscription walls? If there is any current or upcoming MMORPG title out there that could get away with such an ambitious plan, World of Warcraft may be the one to successfully execute.

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Kevin if you get what you pay for WoW owes lots of people refunds. WoW has inexorably replaced quality content with glitzy BS, vapid play and terrible story telling. Sure graphics look better, but to what end?

If WoW goes to a F2P model like say…diablo 3, i have little doubt the greedy bums will make it so that you cant really play the game fully without a thousand microtransactions.

f2p a bubble? yet every single moba being pushed out to try and compete with dota and LoL are f2p. f2p is a necessity at this point if you want a sustainable business model rather than selling 7M copies of sc2 and that’s all you have. Blizzard All stars will be f2p. doubt anything can catch LoL at this point though. At least for 2 years.

The potential issue here is that you are viewing a possible transition to F2P as “throwing something away” – If the numbers add up, transitioning to F2P could be a greater source of revenue generation than current subscription numbers.

lets use models from the top f2p game:runescape at 6 million active players with a pay to win scenario, and WoW with a 7.5 million active playerbase with a pay to play scenario. in 2012 at 8 million subs blizzard had a revenue of 4.7 billion. in 2012 jabex, aka runescape, made a revenue of 703 million. now im no buisness major but thats a substantial difference. i doubt 2 mill subs made a difference of 4 billion. now lets take star wars, which also uses a cash shop and pay to win scenario for free to play and a sub basis as well. Star wars pulled in a 1.1 billion at its peak when it was a solid subscription, now that it went f2p it has lost 400,000 subscriptions and over all players and a 60% decrease in revenue from their comparative quarter. so im failing to see the profit of a pay to win game.

Experience potions seem like a cheap way to solve a mechanic that many are finding boring. The fact that customers are asking for this seems even stranger, They are willing to pay more for less. If your time isn’t worth it, why is your money?

Well WoW has had a ‘starter’ pack that allows you to play without subscribing for years – although this limits you to level 20 amongst other things. So providing a ‘shop’ seems the next logical step towards eventually turning WoW into a Free-to-play title further down the line.

That they would decide to do so seems a none-brainer to me, after all the game is almost a decade old now and at some point its going to start showing its age in ways that patches and expansions can’t hide.

My best guess is that this is part of a long term plan. In the short term these changes *might* help both bring in newer players (or bring back older ones) as well as hopefully offsetting some of the lost revenue from lower subscriptions. It also buys them time to decide on where they take their MMO’s from here – as just about every MMO released since WoW has proved MMO’s are, to put it mildly, expensive gambles that rarely pay off no matter what brand comes with the game. Star Wars has gone through two MMO’s since 2004, neither did well – or certainly not as well as those who made them expected or hoped. I’d guess that Blizzard fully intends to make a replacement for WoW in the next few years, but don’t want to rush things.

In the long term changing WoW into a F2P game will still make them money, even if or when they release something new to ‘replace’ it.

As a WOW user and subscriber, I would hate to see them go to a f2p interface. I could understand the revenue potential however, the ieea of paying for something that should be earned takes away from the enjoyment. This will only transfer the power to those wiling to dish out more dollars, as apposed to those dishing out the time. I would be an example of a lost customer.